Solace from Sin
by MoonChild2308
Summary: She was a demon, a killer, alone in the dark until they pulled her out into the light. Now everything is new and harsh and she's finding it hard to adjust to a world she hasn't lived in for 11 years. She's a deer in the headlights, always ready to withdraw and run at a moment's notice. Can Logan be the one to catch her before she falls? Logan/OC
1. Chapter 1

My brother recently got me into watching the X-Men movies and, though I've never been quite into Marvel comics or superheroes because I grew up with a DC brother, but they were pretty awesome. And I got hooked pretty easily. So now I have the need to write a fanfiction for Logan and I'm so excited about it. I give thanks to L. for all their awesome help with this and when you kind readers are done reading this chapter, I suggest you go over to L. and check out their stories. My favorites in particular are their X-Men fanfic Feeling's Not Enough and one of their Doctor Who stories, called A Living Nightmare. Shameless promotion of a friend, yes, but the stories are phenomenal. Shameless promotion of me time! Review because I put a lot of effort into this and I think it deserves reviews! I'm kidding. Review because you like the story so far and because you want me to continue writing it. So read and review and come back next time!

Chapter 1

"Why?" she cried to herself, her voice cracking, as she sat pressed into what looked like a corner. "Why do they hate me…?"

He watched her, trying to determine the cause of her tears. There was no light, wherever she was, and he could hardly make her shape out in the darkness. The only thing he was certain of was that she was in a great deal of distress.

"Who are you?" he asked out loud, knowing he would get no response. She couldn't hear him. He wasn't truly there.

Relaxing his concentration, Charles Xavier pulled the helmet from his head and set it back in its place. Turning his wheelchair around, he left Cerebro and made for his office, sending a telepathic call out to two of his mutant disciples along the way.

A man with psychic abilities, Xavier was the founder of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, a school that took in mutants, people with a mutated gene that caused them to develop abilities normal humans didn't have, and helped train them to use their gifts. The school already had plenty of students but he was always on the lookout for other mutants that needed their help, through the use of Cerebro, an invention that allowed him to locate them.

Two women were waiting for him in his office when he arrived there. "Jean, Ororo, thank you for coming."

Jean smiled at her mentor as he took his seat at the desk. "Of course, Charles."

"Is everything okay?" Ororo asked.

"I've located a young mutant girl in Kansas," Xavier began to explain to their curious gazes. "She seems to be in some distress."

"You want us to go and bring her back here?" Jean asked, knowing well what distress could mean. "We'll go get the jet ready."

"Not so fast, Jean." She stopped in front of the door. Ororo glanced between the two of them. "I want you to wait. I haven't been watching this girl for long. It's possible she may just be having a bad day. I don't want you rushing into anything before I know more."

Ororo fidgeted, her need to listen to the professor battling with her want to keep anymore young mutants from suffering at the hands of human prosecution. "And if you find that it is more than just a bad day?"

Xavier gave her a gentle smile, feeling and understanding her struggle. "You should prepare to leave for tomorrow morning."

"Understood." Together, Jean and Ororo left his office, leaving him alone.

Turning to his computer, Xavier quickly opened the internet and began doing some research. While he hadn't been able to tell where the girl had been sitting, he was able to discern an overall location: a town called Havenlyn in Kansas. The name sounded familiar, but it didn't sit well with him for a reason he was unsure of.

Typing different queries, all related to Havenlyn, into a search engine. As he looked through the results that turned up, he became increasingly disturbed. He had heard about this town in the news before, and not for a good reason.

Havenlyn was a small town, located in the outskirts of Kansas. It was a heavily religious town, all Catholic, and had been talked about in the news a time back for an issue with a mutant who had been found living in their town. It was nine years ago when a boy had been discovered there with mutant powers. According to the townspeople, the boy, who had only been around nine or ten years old, had attacked them with his fire ability and, in self defense, they had killed him.

While it was the story that the people in the town had given and the story that the world had accepted, Xavier had always gotten an uneasy feeling from it. It was true that sometimes a mutant might lash out against humans, for any numbers of reasons, and that those situations don't always end well. But he could remember thinking back when the news had been talking about this case that there was more to the story that the town was letting on. His hunches were normally right.

Now his hunch was telling him that this girl wasn't safe there.

He decided to head back into Cerebro, a little more than an hour after he'd been in there earlier, to check in on the girl once more before deciding whether to send his X-Men to retrieve her. Unlocking the door through his retinal scan, he made his way to the end of the platform. He placed the helmet on his head and began focusing in on Havenlyn and the girl.

Her demeanor had changed completely since he saw her. In just an hour, she had gone from scared and crying-which he now realized might have been a ruse, though he wasn't sure for who-to angry and…evil. Whatever room she was in was still dark and he couldn't make her out, but her words frightened him.

"Think they… Think they can do this to me… for so long…" Her voice was shaky and rambling. She laughed but almost as soon as she started, she stopped. "They'll see… Yes, they'll see. I'm not weak. They'll see! I'll hurt them and I'll make them see me. I'll kill them and then everyone will have to see."

_Kill_?

Xavier had heard enough. Releasing his concentration, he took off the helmet and quickly made his way back to the office, calling for all of his X-Men along the way. They arrived shortly after he took his spot at the desk in his office, knowing from the tone of his voice when he had called for them and by the look on his face when they saw him that something was wrong. Ororo and Jean had an idea of what this was about, while Logan and Scott, the other two who had been summoned, were lost. "What's so urgent that you had to disturb me from my breakfast?" Logan asked, slightly annoyed.

"Is this about the girl?" Jean wondered, knowing that it was.

Scott looked at his wife and then back at the professor. He was used to not always being in the loop. "What girl?"

Xavier cleared his throat, waiting for all of them to be quiet before he began. "Who remembers Havenlyn, Kansas?"

They were all quiet for a moment, trying to think if they had heard it before. It was Ororo who spoke first. "Didn't they kill a mutant a couple years ago?"

"What?" Logan nearly yelled, immediately outraged. "They _killed_ a mutant? What the hell for?"

"The town claimed self defense," Xavier answered, silencing them once more. "Earlier I was telling Jean and Ororo about a mutant girl I located this morning who seemed to be in a great deal of distress. After looking into it some more, I realized she lives in that same town."

"You want us to go and get her before they can do to her what they did to that boy," Scott assumed, ready to go.

"Yes and no." Xavier understood their haste. None of them liked knowing about mutants being persecuted in society. Many of the mutants at the school had gone through it and were all eager to put an end to it. But there was no room for error here. "I checked back in on the girl just a few minutes ago. I have no way of knowing yet what she's been through but she seems to harbor a large amount of hatred towards Havenlyn. I don't know what type of ability she has; she could be dangerous." He waited a moment for the information to sink in. "Jean, Logan, and Scott, I want you to take the jet and retrieve her. Try not to harm her. We don't know what she's been through and we don't need to cause her anymore pain that she might have already endured. Ororo, I want you to stay here and begin making preparations for her. Is everything understood?"

Jean, Scott and Logan all agreed and left, getting ready to head out, while Ororo stayed behind. "Do you think she'll be dangerous?"

_I'll kill them and then everyone will have to see._ "It's hard to say," Xavier finally admitted, after thinking it over. "If I'm right, she has every right to want to see her town destroyed. It's hard to argue when someone is justified, and I believe she is."

~X~

"58…59…60… That's 20 minutes." Her voice came out a whisper, more from force of habit than need. _They've been gone for 20 minutes. They should be at church by now. Time to go._

She went to stand up and, foolishly, remembered her hands had been tied behind the backing of the chair. _Guess I've gotten so used to it I don't feel the ropes anymore. I can't go anywhere until I get these off._

Trying to concentrate, she began to reach out with her mind. "It's been awhile since I've called for you, but, Vines, if you can hear me, I could really use your help right now." Almost immediately, she could feel the floor beneath her trembling just a little bit. A long green vine burst through the concrete, writhing in the air in front of her, as if watching her. Sending a thought to the plant, it moved around to behind her. Using the thorns that ran the length of the vine, it sliced the rope binding her hands. "Thank you."

Finally free, the girl stood up. She stretched, enjoying the pop of her joints. "Let's go." She began making her way up the basement stairs, having to stop every few steps to relieve the pain in her legs. It had been far too long since she'd been able to climb stairs, and her muscles couldn't handle the strain. Finally she reached the top of the stairs and tried the door knob, finding it unlocked. _Stupid idiots… They must think I'm so weak that they could forget to lock the door. _Pushing the door open, she made her way out of her house.

The sun was blinding as she walked outside. _Sunlight… I forgot how nice it felt._ She had to shield her eyes as she walked to see where she was going. After a few minutes, her eyes adjusted and she lowered her hand.

The streets were empty. It didn't surprise her. That was why she had picked this morning, after all. It was Sunday morning and, in Havenlyn, everyone went to church. At least as far as she knew, they still did. She had to think about where the church was located but it came back to her and she turned around, heading in that direction.

She was quiet as she walked, hoping that no one would come out of their houses, late for church, and see her. The walk was uneventful, to her relief. The only soul she passed was a feline, a small tabby cat she didn't recognize but assumed belonged to one of the families. It was licking its paw and she stopped, smiling in spite of what she was planning to do. Not knowing when the next time she would see a cat was, she bent down to pet the top of its head. In return, it swiped its paw at her, scratching her hand. The girl stood back up, examining the new wound with curiosity. _That's an idea._

She closed her eyes and, in her head, began thinking about the claws of a cat, imagining growing them for herself. It didn't take long for the tingling sensation in her hands to begin, as she felt her own natural nails growing and sharpening, forming her own set of claws. She opened her eyes once more, looking down at her new tools and feeling a sense of pride. The sense of pride diminished almost instantly as she remembered just why she was able to grow them.

"I should keep going." Shaking the feeling away, she continued on. It wasn't long before the church was in her sight. Marching right up to the doors of the town's most sacred building, she shoved one door open with a bang.

Everyone inside the church stopped what they were doing and looked back, freezing the moment they saw who it was. The priest, Father Matthias as she remembered, in the front appeared angered while the citizens sitting in the pews looked horrified. Several of them began to scream. "Shut up." Annoyed already, she sent another call out to the vines and was rewarded with stain glass shattering as her plants crashed through the windows. Still the people wouldn't stop screaming. Targeting several of them, she had the vines run through them, in one end and out the other, and didn't pull them out until they were collapsed on the floor, dead.

A mass panic began as she tried to scour the church crowd for the two she was looking for. She was able to determine that they weren't there by the time people began fleeing from the building. Only some tried to leave; others were scared stiff in their seats. Those that did leave found a horde of vines waiting for them as soon as they made it outside.

Anyone else who had been tempted to make a break for it sat back down once the escapees began screaming. _Yes, suffer. Suffer, like you made me suffer. _The girl waited for their screams to die, enjoying their pain, before she used those same vines to wrap around the perimeter of the church, closing off all the exits and preventing anyone else from leaving.

"Demon!"

"Father Matthias," she groaned, recognizing the booming voice from the man at the front of the room. "How unfortunate it is to see you again."

The brunette priest walked, shoulders held high and brave even though she could tell he was trembling with fear, down the aisle to stop in front of her, glaring down at her. "How are you here? Evil beings are not welcome on this sacred ground!"

"You haven't changed since I was a kid, Matthias." Flexing her clawed fingers, she grinned at him. The next thing the priest knew, blood was pouring out of his neck. Her eyes never left his as he sunk to the ground, clutching his throat to try and stop the crimson flow, until the light slowly faded from them. "You still talk too much."

There was a quiet murmur through the crowd and she snapped back to attention. Scanning the remaining people once more, she checked to make sure she hadn't missed her targets. _Where are they?_

"Hey, Glasses," she said to the man with the large glasses sitting in the pew closest to her. "Where are my parents?"

"Y-Yo-Your p-parents?" he stuttered, scared out of his mind. "I haven't… I haven't seen them… Oh God, please don't kill me!"

She briefly contemplated killing him, just for the hell of it, but then remembered she was running out of time. If her parents made it to the church before she could find them, they would see the corpses on the ground and go for help. Turning around, she asked the plants to make an opening for her in the doorway and, once they obliged, she left.

_Now where are my parents?_

~X~

"We're closing in on Havenlyn."

Logan and Scott looked up as Jean announced their arrival at the town Xavier had sent them to. "Good. The sooner we grab this chick and go, I can get back to eating," Logan sighed, thinking fondly of the breakfast he had been disturbed from earlier.

"Is that all you can think about?" Scott asked, looking at him from his seat on the jet. "We could have a rogue mutant on our hands here and all you want to do is eat."

"Enough, guys. I'm turning stealth mode on." Xavier had instructed them before they left that they were not to bring the jet in unless they were cloaked, so as not to spook anyone in the town. "We'll fly over the town, see if we can spot anything, and land the jet right outside." Jean flipped the switch for stealth mode and the jet cloaked itself, making it invisible to anyone.

She steered the jet so that it would take a round trip above the town. As they began passing over the Havenlyn buildings, they looked down to see if they could see anything happening. "Are those ropes?" Scott asked as they spotted one of the largest buildings in town. It looked like a church, but there were what looked like green ropes wrapped around the outside of the building.

"No," Logan answered. "I think those are vines. And… dead people?" That was when they noticed the bodies lying on the ground in front of the building. "Did she kill them?"

"I don't know." Jean turned the plane around and aimed it towards the outside of town once more. "But I think we better land the jet and move in on foot."

~X~

The streets of Havenlyn were empty as the three of them walked through the town, having left the jet behind on the outskirts. Jean was the first to speak. "I think it's safe to assume that this girl, whoever she is, is the one who wrapped those vines around the church. And, from how barren these streets are, I think we can also assume that many of the citizens are trapped in there. Scott, I believe you'd be best suited to go and free everyone in the church. You should head there first. Logan and I will find this girl and he'll be my backup in case she gets violent."

"Speaking of this girl," Logan interrupted, his head tilted slightly so he could listen to something a distance away from them. "I think I found her, not too far up. Sounds like there's someone with her, or more than one."

"I'll head off this way to go find the church, then, and leave you guys to do your thing. Good luck and be careful." Scott disbanded from the group, off to do his assigned duty.

The remaining two silenced their conversation, moving quietly up the street, until three people came into their sights. They found a girl, standing in the middle of the street, who was standing in front of two people, who were wrapped up in vines that had broken through the ground. "It's time for you to finally pay for the pain you caused me!"

"Stop!" Jean yelled as she walked onto the scene. She glanced at her side and noticed Logan had gone missing. "I don't know what's been done to you or what you've been through, but this is not the answer!"

"What?" The girl was clearly startled by Jean's appearance. "I thought I got everyone in town."

Jean took a few more steps towards the girl. "We can help you. Violence and death, all of this, is not the answer to your pain. Let us help you."

"You're annoying," the girl simply said.

Jean felt the ground tremble slightly and, seeing what this girl had done to the two people next to her, could only anticipate one thing. Readying her psychic power, she was prepared for the vine that burst out of the ground at her, raising her hand and stopping it as soon as she saw it.

She didn't miss the confused look that took over the girl's face. Unsure of what was going on, the girl tried again, only to have Jean stop the new vine with the same technique. "What's going on?" the girl's voice came out panicked and lost. "Who are you?"

Suddenly her eyes fluttered shut and she fell forward, only to be caught by a pair of arms. "Thanks, Logan," Jean said to her comrade, who had approached the girl from behind when she began getting violent and had hit her in the back of the head.

Jean let up her powers as she felt the vines beginning to retreat back into the Earth. The two people who had been wrapped up were released and collapsed to the ground, struggling to get the breath back. Logan lifted the girl up into his arms, noticing her hands as he did. What looked like some sort of claws extending out of her nails were disappearing.

"I see you took care of things." Jean and Logan looked over as Scott joined them, walking down the street. There was a small crowd of people a short ways behind him. "The vines weren't hard to break through. Of course, the people didn't seem happy to see me. They don't seem to be fans."

"They took her down!" one of the people behind Scott yelled, seeing the girl in Logan's arms.

The three of them watched as the small crowd all stared, horror and disgust on their faces, at the girl. "You should kill her," one person called out. "Kill her while you have a chance! She's nothing but evil!"

Logan twitched, his annoyance rising. "What the hell-"

"Logan, don't." Jean put a hand on his shoulder, keeping him from erupting on the citizens like he wanted to. "We should get going."

"You're right." He nodded and followed after her as she took the lead, heading back to the jet.

He looked down at the girl in his arms. _Evil?_


	2. Chapter 2

So I hope everyone liked chapter 1 :D Thanks to L. for reviewing and for all their help with this. I've really started getting into X-Men as a whole. I'm not reading the comics, but I found a really awesome website that has extremely detailed summaries of each individual issue so I'm going through those. Who knows? There might be a fanfiction for the comics in the future. Anyway, read and review! Reviews keep the story going. Well, honestly, I love this story so much I'll probably keep writing even without reviews but reviews make me happy so review!

Chapter 2

"I wonder what they did to her."

"What do you mean?" Jean glanced back at Logan from her seat at the front of the jet. They were halfway through their trip from Havenlyn back to the mansion in Westchester. The girl they had been sent to retrieve was unconscious, restrained in one of the seats. Logan had knocked her out originally with a blow to the back of the head, but Jean had given her a sedative once they were back on the jet to make sure she stayed asleep until they could return to the mansion.

Logan hadn't stopped watching the girl since they'd gotten up in the air. "She killed at least a dozen people and seemed pretty intent on killing those two we saved. They had to have done something to piss her off."

"Maybe she enjoys it," Scott suggested. "She could just be a psychopath."

"No, I don't think that's it."

"I'm going to call the school and let them know we're on our way back," Jean announced, silencing the other two mutants

Xavier listened patiently on the other end of the line as Jean explained what they had seen and what the girl had done before they left with her. "I'm sure she has her reasons for doing what she did," he said once she finished. "And will explain them when the time is right. For now, bring her to the infirmary when you get back."

~X~

It wasn't a long ride back to the mansion and, since they hadn't brought a gurney or anything to load the girl onto, Logan carried her in his arms. She had looked small to him but he was surprised at how little she actually weighed when he lifted her up.

Jean stopped him and Scott when they entered the mansion. "Scott, sweetie, I want you to go find the professor. He probably knows we're back already but I want you to go get him and start devising some sort of plan. Logan and I will bring her to the infirmary so I can start checking her out."

Scott nodded and walked away, off to find Xavier, while Jean and Logan made their way to the infirmary, not far from the entrance of the school. Once inside the infirmary, Jean closed the doors and Logan set the girl down on the exam table. "I'm just going to do a quick check up, make sure she's not hurt."

Logan stepped back so he wouldn't be in Jean's way, but he found himself staring at the girl once more. There was something about her that bothered him.

She was a very petite girl who looked to be about 17 or 18. He guessed that if she were to stand up next to him, she'd only be about as tall as his chest. She had wavy hair, a dark cherry color, that fell to her waist and a small beauty mark underneath her right eye. She was frail and her white skin seemed unhealthily pale to him. She was wearing a large brown dress, that looked more like a sack than clothing, that was too large for her small frame and left her arms and part of her legs bare. On her wrists and ankles were what appeared to be some sort of marks, though he couldn't pinpoint what they were from.

"Look at this," Jean said, pulling him from his thoughts. Standing no the other side of the table from her, he leaned over to see what she was talking about. She lifted up the girl's arm and, in that position, he could see dozens of tiny marks running up and down her arm, haphazardly placed. "Are these scars?"

Logan glanced down at the girl's other arm, finding it the same way. "From the look of them, I'd say so. But where did she get so many of them from?"

They didn't have a chance to speculate anymore, for Jean felt the arm she was holding in her hand tense up. The girl, whoever she was, was beginning to wake up. Jean put her arm down and backed up a few steps, trying to give her some room to react.

Her eyelids fluttered open slowly, revealing a pair of bright purple eyes behind them, and she rubbed at them, drowsy. "Why's it so bright…?" Her voice was hoarse, but soft. Her eyes darted around the room, glancing over both of the mutants, and it seemed to take her a moment to remember what had happened.

When she did, she sat up with a start. Her breathing sped up and she looked terrified. "What's going on? Who are you? Where am I?"

"It's okay. Calm down." Logan was the first one to react, putting his hands up in a show of peace. He took a step in her direction slowly. "My name is Logan, and this is Jean. We're not going to hurt you." He extended a hand towards her, thinking that a handshake might help show he wasn't a threat.

She panicked, flinching hard and putting her arm up in front of herself in defense. _She thinks I'm going to hit her?_ "It's okay, kid. We're not going to hurt you." He looked to Jean for help, but she seemed lost as to what to do to help the girl calm down.

When Logan looked back at the girl, she was holding the back of her head, where he had knocked her out, in pain. "You were hit pretty hard. You should let us take a look at that."

Hoping she wouldn't react too severely, he tried to take a look at the back of her head but, when he put his hand out, she reacted defensively. Using what was closest to his hand, she opened her mouth and bit him. Her bite must have been harder than it looked, because he started yelling. But as much as Logan yelled and tried to pull his hand away, she wouldn't budge. "You have to let go of his hand now," Jean tried to explain and reason with the girl.

Things went on like that for a few minutes until they head someone clear their throat. Logan and Jean looked at the door, finding Xavier, Ororo and Scott standing there. "What's going on here?" Xavier asked, looking slightly amused but serious at the same time.

Distracted by the newcomers, the girl took her mouth off Logan's hand. He wasn't surprised when he pulled it back to and found wounds from her teeth; her bite had been shockingly strong. Her wide amethyst eyes were locked on his hand as the wounds healed within a matter of seconds. She stared at him for a long moment and he could almost see the gears turning in her head, and then she turned to look at Jean. She glanced over the other three, before finally opening her mouth. "Are you all demons, too?"

Everyone stopped and stared. Even Xavier hadn't been prepared for her question. They were all stunned.

"Demons?" Xavier asked when he was able to overcome the initial shock. "Why would you think that?"

She sat straight on the metal table, looking at the bald man with incredulity. "Mother and father told me I was a demon when I grew a tail. They said anyone with abilities like me was a demon."

"And you didn't see anything wrong with that?" Logan immediately questioned, developing an instant hatred for her so-called parents.

The look she gave him was blank, as if she didn't understand where he was coming from. "No. They told me that children of God are equal, that no one person has better abilities than someone else, and since I am unequal with my abilities, I am not a child of God, but of Satan, and that makes me a demon."

"Child, what is your name?"

She looked back at Xavier as she began swinging her legs back and forth in the air in front of the table. "Ariadne Whittemore."

He wheeled his chair a bit closer to her, giving her a gentle smile. "Ariadne, then. My name is Charles Xavier. This is Ororo, Scott, Jean and Logan. They are students here at this school I created, Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. Like you, everyone who goes here has special abilities."

"Everyone?"

He could still sense a lot of fear coming from her, as well as see it in her slight tremble, but she looked more intrigued by the idea of a school with people like her than afraid at the moment. "Everyone. Scott here can shoot lasers from his eyes, Logan heals himself at a superhuman rate, and Jean and I are telepathic. There's a student here who can control ice, one who can change television channels by blinking, and a girl who can pass through walls. But, you know, none of us are demons, and neither are you."

Curiosity was taken over by pure confusion and doubt. "I don't understand."

"We are called mutants," he tried to simplify the explanation as best as he could, knowing she probably wouldn't understand it otherwise. "As humans, we are made of genes. Genes are what make us who we are, from what hair color we have to the color of our skin. Some people have a certain gene that is different from others, and that gene enables us to have special abilities. Those who have this mutated gene are called mutants. _You_ are a mutant."

_Mutant?_ Ariadne grew quiet, withdrawing back into herself to think about what the man she'd barely just met had said. _I'm a… mutant? That would be the easier option… But surely… Surely they didn't lie to me all these years… They wouldn't have lied about what I was. They should have loved me… but they wouldn't have lied…_

Xavier and Jean could feel the apprehension radiating from the girl and he knew that the truth about being a mutant was too much for her to accept right now. Whatever Havenlyn and her parents had been doing to her, they had poisoned her mind and it would take more than just a meeting and words to convince her that what she knew was wrong. "It's okay, you don't have to believe me. It will come with time."

"If only you could have sent us to her years ago," Ororo thought out loud.

Ariadne perked up, those words having some hidden meaning to the girl that the rest were unaware of. "You sent them?"

"I did." Xavier nodded, and was suddenly bombarded by a wave of anger coming from her. "You, and others, were in danger."

"The only ones in danger were those who got in my way!" Her voice rose, yelling now.

He spoke calmly, knowing anything else would only cause more frustration from her. "In your way of what?"

"Killing my parents!"

Logan had been watching her the entire time, gauging her reactions and wondering if she would attempt to use her powers on them as she had when they first approached her. His observation paid off when he noticed claw-like nails on her fingertips, just as he had seen them before. But instead of losing them, she was growing them. When she went to move, he grabbed her shoulder and shoved her back into her seat. "No, you don't." Keeping one hand on her shoulder, he used his other hand to lift hers up and show the others what he saw. "So, you control vines and grow claws? Talk about variety."

Xavier was intrigued. She was still angry but he knew staying on the topic of her parents would do her no good, so he changed topics. "Ariadne, why don't you explain your abilities to us?"

She seemed hesitant at first, as if unsure of how to do that. "Well… um… When I was eight I grew a dog tail. A few years after that I made vines grow out through the basement floor."

"But you can do more than grow a dog tail and control vines? Can you turn into any animals?"

"I can't do that but I can grow cat claws…"

Xavier looked thoughtful for a moment. "Your powers seem nature based, though they probably haven't finished developing yet. Ororo also has nature-type abilities."

Ororo gave Ariadne a smile and approached her, bending down so that she could be eye level with the young girl. "My name is Ororo Munroe. How old are you, sweetie?"

Ariadne regarded her with a cautious look. "19."

Ororo took the girl's pale hand in her own. "So you've had your abilities for 11 years now, then. I know, we all know, how scary it can be when you first discover you can do things that other people can't. Your powers are probably still very scary to you. Things can get even scarier when the people who are supposed to love and support you persecute you instead. But what you did, killing those people… Violence is never the answer. If you let your anger rule you like you did earlier, if you let that need for vengeance take control, then you're only proving to those who shunned you that they were right. But, here, we can help you. We all want to help you learn how to use your powers for good because, after all, we all know what you're going through. We were all new to our powers once."

She could tell Ariadne was skeptical of her. _If what she says is true, that her family and everyone in her town turned against her, she's going to have some major trust issues. It's natural she wouldn't believe that we want to help her. But maybe having someone with similar powers to her will help._ "You know, Ariadne, our powers are alike. I can't control plants or grow a tail, but I can control the weather, which is a part of nature, too."

"You can control the weather?" the girl asked, almost in disbelief.

"Would you like to see?" Ororo waited for the girl's nod before activating her powers. Her eyes turned white and clouds began to form above them, swirling around for a moment before she dispersed them and returned to normal.

She was pleased to find a smile, albeit a small one, on Ariadne's face. Some of the tension left the girl, too busy being amazed by the display of ability to be worried about where she was. Jean took the opportunity to reach out for the back of the girl's head, trying to check the sore spot from where Logan had hit her.

Ariadne felt the pressure on her head and jerked to the side, looking at Jean with fright. The motion caused the loose brown dress to slip from her small shoulder, revealing a cross shaped mark on her skin. It was deep red in color and looked like a burn mark that hadn't healed properly. Looking up, Jean noticed Logan had spotted it too. It didn't seem like anyone else had seen it, though, and they silently agreed to keep it quiet for the moment.

"It's alright to be scared, Ariadne," Ororo was trying to comfort their young charge. "Jean is our doctor. She just wants to check your head. She won't hurt you but, if she does by accident, you just have to say something and she'll stop right away. Okay?"

Without taking her eyes off of Ororo's, Ariadne nodded for Jean to go ahead. It only took a moment for Jean to part the red hair and check the scalp for any wounds. Finding none, she pulled her hands away. "You're fine. You have no injuries. You know, we have a bathroom right over there. Would you like to take a shower and get cleaned up before we do anything else?"

Looking up at the woman, Ariadne' face was nothing but confusion. "What's a shower?"

A snort came from Logan's direction, as if he couldn't believe what he'd just heard. "You don't know what a shower is? Where've you been for the last century?"

"I've been locked up in my basement for the last 11 years."

Everyone, including Logan, was stunned silent. When no one spoke for several moments, she was prompted to ask, "Why do you all look so sad? Is… Is that not normal for people like me?"

"Normal isn't really a term that gets used here a lot," Ororo said, knowing that someone had to say something before the girl began to panic again. "But we can talk about what's normal and what isn't later. For now, why don't I take you and show you what a shower is? It's not hard." She held her hand out to Ariadne, smiling although she wanted to cry for the poor girl, but noticed the girl's hesitation. "It's alright."

Finding some bravery, Ariadne took a deep breath and took the extended hand. Getting down from the table she had been sitting on, she let Ororo lead her into the adjoining bathroom.

Once the door had been shut behind them, Xavier let out a sad sigh. "I had been afraid of what she'd been through, but I hadn't imagined that."

"They told her she was a demon and locked her up. Aren't there laws against that?" Scott asked, angry. "This girl is completely clueless, all because of some religious nutcases!"

"She was eight when they locked her up. As soon as she found out about her abilities, they were trying to convince her she was evil and wrong. And because she was eight, she believed them." Xavier shook his head in sadness. "When you're that young, what choice do you have but to believe what you're told? They were her family, her friends, and she believed they were telling her the truth."

"They branded her." Everyone looked up at Logan as he joined the conversation. "She has a mark on her shoulder, in the shape of a cross. It looks like they branded her."

Jean nodded. "It does. I wonder when…"

"Does it matter?" Logan questioned. "They were her family. Even if the town had wanted to shun her, her family should have been there for her. They couldn't even have the decency to tell her she was a mutant. A demon… It's sick."

Xavier cast a glance at the bathroom door, briefly wondering how the two girls were doing in there. "We can't change what's happened to her. We have to try and find out more about what she went through and try to move her past it. However, we can't ignore the fact that she killed all those people without a second thought."

_This is going to be a tricky situation._


	3. Apology

Dear readers,

I don't know how many of you still keep up with this story. I lost track of it a long time ago, a little less than a year ago, though it seems like so much longer than that. I had ideas of getting back to it recently but that isn't going to happen now.

I'm leaving Fanfiction, for good pretty much. I'm posting letters like this on all of my stories. I love Fanfiction dearly and all of my amazing readers but my life has become too complicated and too busy for this right now. My mom has come down with cancer and I'm not sure how much longer she's going to be around. Fanfiction requires too much of my time and right now that time is better spent with my mom.

I never wanted to leave Fanfiction and I've always had so much fun writing them. I had so many ideas for all my stories and it was never my intention to leave any of them behind. I was even in the process of creating a new one when the decision hit me. But for all the time I spend writing my fics, it's time that I could be spending with my mom, and time that I won't have in the case something happens to her. So I have to leave, even though I have mixed feelings about it. I might be back someday; I might not. There's a good chance I'll use my absence from Fanfiction to start back up on some of my original fiction that I let go of because Fanfiction consumed my life.

I hate to see my stories sit and waste away, though. So I'm offering the option up: if anyone out there was so attached to this story that they want to take it over, write it and continue it, the offer is available. Please PM me if you think it's something you might want to do.

Again, I'm so sorry everyone. But my life and my mother come first, before my love of Fanfiction.

Farewell,

Moonchild2308


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